Maintaining a one-man library fulltime

Book Review The Awakening & Other Stories

Put on the kettle, close the curtains and curl up by the fire. Dive into 8 short tales, each with a slice of the paranormal.

Ghost Story – Who is the shadow in the window of the abandoned house, and what or who is he waiting for?The Awakening – It’s time for Sabrina to wake up and face the light.End of the Line – Cassie wants to die. When midnight rolls around, she stands on the tracks waiting for the train to come.Milsa Loris – The once magnificent kingdom of Milsa Loris comes alive one night each winter. The King’s witch is brewing up a little magic, sure to make the soup all the tastier.The Old Vampire – Hailey spent her life dreaming of a dark prince falling in love with her. He never showed up, until now.The Knocking – Alison’s grandfather has one eye on the next life. After all, he’s heard a lot of rapping at his door lately.The Boy on the Beach – Kate’s grandmother warns her about the boy with the green eyes. Will she pay heed?Snowglobes– It’s busy at Calvin’s Cabins this Christmas. Eddie and Maggie are a young couple in trouble. Not to fear, Calvin is always ready to lend a hand.

I decided to read The Awakening & Other Stories because it was a short read. I’m not usually too keen on anthologies, but I thought: what the heck. I’m glad I read this one. All the stories were short and to the point, and I could easily read through them within my breaks. They were delightful and scary, but not that scary that I had to crawl under my bed and hide. Just more like fun-scary.

Instead of giving my opinion on each story, I’m going to talk about the most memorable ones, which would be “The Awakening”, “The Old Vampire” and “End of The Line”. “The Awakening” was brilliant from start to end, and for me, the most powerful and memorable story in the book. I thought about this story for a long while after I finished reading. “The Old Vampire” was another excellent read that haunted me for long afterward. I didn’t find this one that scary while reading it, but the more I thought about it afterward, the scarier the story became. “End of the Line” was a nice thrill-ride, and probably the story that scared me the most in the entire anthology.

“The Knocking” was my least favorite. It was predictable, and the story took a lot of build up to get to the end of what was basically, a very simple story.

I like the author’s creativity and writing style. She has a very to-the-point writing style, and that’s always enjoyable in short stories. If she has another anthology coming out, I will definitely pick it up since I very much enjoyed this one.

Author Bio

Emma Meade lives in rainy Ireland. She loves vampires, slayers, witches, ghosts, aliens & shadow men (or at least the youngest of the Shadow Men), and regular people who live extraordinary lives (think Slayerettes and you’re on the right track).

Books, DVDS & TV show boxsets take up lots of space in her home, and she collects all the Point Horror books she can get her hands on.

Writing supernatural stories and watching marathon re-runs of Buffy are some of her favourite ways of escaping reality.

The Single Librarian

Hey! My name is Elise, and I'm a single librarian maintaining a small town library. As you can guess, I spend most my time with my nose buried in a book! This is my blog, where I review books, host guest posts and interviews and have a blast. Check out the Review Policy if you want to send a review request.

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Ratings

0 stars - I really didn't like this book. Best to stay away from it.
1 stars - If you really want to, give it a shot. Otherwise, not a good choice.
2 stars - This book was meh. I wouldn't advice it to anyone.
3 stars - A good read. Nothing extraordinairy, but a fun way to pass the time.
4 stars - Great read. I loved this one - definitely recommended.
5 stars - This is the best book since The Lord of The Rings and Harry Potter. If you haven't read this one, you're missing out on something.